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GULLANE, SCOTLAND—Apparently, losing in the three-man playoff at the John Deere in Illinois last Sunday didn’t leave any long-lasting marks on Zach Johnson.

He’s the early leader at the 142nd Open Championship, posting a five-under-par 66 at Muirfield on another very un-Scottish summer day —meaning sunny and warm and only mildly windy.

Johnson and Canada’s David Hearn were the runners-up in a five-hole playoff won by Jordan Spieth, whose first PGA Tour win after an amazing rookie half-season earned him a spot in this field. Johnson’s round Thursday of four birdies, one eagle and one bogey round put him one shot ahead of Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello (67) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) among early finishers. Americans Dustin Johnson and Brandt Snedeker also came in at 68 on a dry, fast course getting almost dangerously shiny by mid-afternoon.

“I had forgotten about it until you just mentioned it,’’ Johnson cracked about the weekend disappointment. “No, I’m teasing. I think you have to. I think this game demands resilience. It demands resilience on the golf course, each round, each hole and day to day. But it also demands it week to week and that just comes with experience.’’

Early on, the Open was sending out its usual surprise signals; 56-year-old Mark O’Meara, whose last PGA Tour win was the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale, got it to four-under through a dozen holes before a couple of late bogeys flattened him out.

Among those going the wrong way were Rory McIlroy (79), U.S. Open champ Justin Rose (75) and Sir Nick Faldo (79), the TV talker and three-time past champion who turned 56 Thursday.

Tiger Woods hit a wild first drive to the left, requiring him to hit a provisional ball, which he then yanked even further left. He found his first ball, but took a one-shot penalty for unplayable lie, then chopped it into a greenside bunker. He hit a sterling sand splash to two feet to save the bogey and scrambled back to par by making birdie at the par-three fourth hole.

Earlier, the speed of the greens, more than the exacting demands of links golf, knocked Graham DeLaet’s first round off the rails.

The Weyburn, Sask., native, only Canadian in the 156-man field, posted a five-over-par 76 and his trio of three-putts was the leading cause.

“I struggled with my speed all day. I felt like I didn’t really have any birdie chances. I finally got one on No. 8 and ran it six feet past the hole and made bogey and did the same thing on 14. Disappointing, for sure,’’ said DeLaet, who birdied the par-five ninth with a stone-dead chip for his only birdie of the day. That one came after good par saves out of sand at the sixth and seventh holes.

“I stuck to my game plan, except a couple of times I really wanted to hit driver when I shouldn’t have because I was so frustrated. So I was happy with that,’’ he said. “There was nothing that kind of jumped out and surprised us. I just wasn’t hitting the kind of shots I needed to. I actually holed a few decent putts, but I feel like I had six-seven feet all day for par. I mean I had a tap-in putt for par at 17 and I don’t even remember the last time I had a tap-in par.’’

He found a bunker at the first hole and made bogey and also drove his tee shot into the sand at No. 10, which led to a double bogey when he shanked his third shot, then couldn’t get up and down.

“I didn’t feel like I was on point with my golf swing, but all my misses were kind of different, so there’s not really one thing to work on,’’ he added.

DeLaet spotted a few Saskatchewan Roughrider shirts in the large crowds and heard plenty of “Go Canada” exhortations.

“There’s a lot of Canadians out there supporting. I wish I could have played a little bit better for them, but there’s always tomorrow.’’

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